March for Babies

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Keep On Keepin On

We meet with the surgeon tomorrow for the surgical follow up. I have already spoken to our Oncologist. I know that there were some cancerous cells left behind at the edge of the resection. I know they were hopirg to find more "dead" cells than live ones in the pathology, but they found enough live ones to mention it. So, where do we go from here? A CT Scan is being scheduled for next week and we will check back into the hospital Nov. 7 for a 4-day-long IV drip of chemo. So far, she has responded well to the chemo without suffering many side effects. This is good, since the doctor said once her AFP (the cancer marker in her blood work) returns to normal we will do 2 or 3 more rounds of chemo and then put her on "maintenance chemo". This is all a lot of work now hoping to prevent the cancer from coming back down the road. Obviously, we will do whatever we have to do to get our girl healthy and keep her that way! We may know more tomorrow. Then again, maybe not. The good news is, the AFP went from 16,450 in September down to 883 post-surgery (normal is 8 or below). So we are still heading in the right direction, slowly but surely.

Our Dear Amanda is fighting Hepatoblastoma. Her best friend and bodyguard is a stuffed Lion named Meow. He keeps her safe even when Mommy and Daddy make her do things she does not want to do. This is our journey through treatment to the light at the end of the tunnel.

Manda and Meow

Words to Live By

"It isn't brave if you aren't scared."-From the movie Bounce

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow."- Mary Anne Radmacher